How did you come
to play music, and how did Si-Cut.db start?
During the late 80s I had my feet in both the
avant-garde and the pop fields (Brian Eno, Associates,
Human League, Talking Heads, Sparks, Krautrock, Wire,
Cabaret Voltaire, Michael Nyman, Factory Records, even
REM!). During my late teens I would literally just stay
in and listen to John Peel every night. Then acid house/Detroit
techno happened and I thought: 'I have to loosen up',
(meaning: drop my vocals with their embarrassing JG
Ballard influenced lyrics and Phillip Glass keyboard
references. The whole thing was very precious I can
tell you). I threw myself into the rave/techno end of
things which seemed more liberating, less self-conscious,
and that twisted its way towards electronica.
You have collaborated with an impressive amount
of people. Which one have you enjoyed the most so far?
Oh Lordy! I have to say that the most fruitful
and pleasant to do is the Tennis material with Ben(ge).
Other projects were fine, nice people too, but I think
Ben and I seem to have some unwritten/unsaid rules we
work to, we are fairly decisive and have a good working
method... I'm proud of the project with Stephan Mathieu
(Reciprocess Vol. 2) too, but as we worked
on it in different countries, the collaboration seemed
more distant, with both of us working alone, where as
Tennis is very ‘hands on' and fast for both of
us.
Is there anyone you would like to work with
but haven't been able to yet?
People who I admire for having a totally different
approach to me: Rosey Parlane, Kaffe Matthews, Oren
Ambarchi, Tim Hecker, Pimmon, Steve Beresford, The Bohmann
Brothers, even old Eno I guess (I think he would be
pretty funny). I tried working with Burnt Friedmann
once, but it didn't really happen. Scanner and I have
some unreleased collaborations, but they are a bit old
now, need 'reprocessing', as it were...
What makes you decide to collaborate with someone?
Usually if I can hear a different approach
to mine, plus, if their music grabs me in some way...
often, its a personality thing. Like for instance if
you really get on with someone on personal level, e.g.
Marc from Rechenzentrum, Ann Shenton or Pablo from Exact
Life (to draw on some history here). I learnt over the
years that 'production' is very much about dealing with
people and a small fraction of it is about the music
you or they make!
You've now recorded three albums with Benge
as Tennis. Do you have any plans to continue working
together?
I am extremely proud of what we've done with
Tennis, as I think each album we’ve made along
the way has been a progression; Furlines is
a watershed, or benchmark I think Ben and I pretty proud
of and want to sit back a bit and work out where we
want to take it from here, but we have tentatively worked
on new tracks and look forward to feeling our way towards
further albums, with some new ideas hopefully.
The last Tennis album, Furlines was
based around the concept of nature, and was described
as ‘a walk in the wood’. Where did the idea
came from, and was it easy to carry it onto record?
I'm not sure where we go the idea. The mammal
theme seem to soften the idea of these 'harsh digital
music'; in a strange way an organic feel was always
in the tracks, a warmth, and maybe a bit of nostalgia
too... (I grew up in the countryside, and living in
the city, one misses nature surrounding you to an extent).
Maybe we have a soft spot for 'prog-rock' and the idea
of concepts and puns, a loose idea to hang things on,
but also with a gentle sense of humour I think. I was
very pleased with the artwork as well, which was quite
close to our original (drunken) discussions...
This album also contained a second disc featuring
remixes of tracks taken from Europe On Horseback.
How did this project come together?
I think this was Philippe Petit's (Bip-Hop
label head) idea, as it was an anniversary release for
Bip-Hop, Tennis was one of the founding acts on Bip-Hop,
the free CD seemed a nice present. I like all the remixes
very much, in that they keep the textures of Europe
On Horseback, but they get darker and deeper I
think, going to places we didn't explore.
How did the collaboration with Stephan Mathieu
for Reciprocess 2 came about?
Again Philippe Petit had the idea of the Reciprocess
projects - the first in the series was with Komet and
Bovine Life, and he asked me who I would like to work
with if I did one, and I thought immediately of Stephan,
as he has recently played at one of our sprawl events.
He was a lovely person and I found his music quite different
to mine, but I could see vague similarities I guess...
How was this work different from what you have
done before?
For the pieces I worked on I felt that it was
an extension of a lot of my ideas and sound constructions
- generative music, digital processing, a slight dub
and techno edge. In the late eighties I actually did
some truly ambient music, trying to follow Brian Eno's
'ambient template', and Reciprocess was open
ended like that, where the music was about the texture
and evocation. It would take you to a place or sound
like very environmental; I am very pleased with the
slightly 'David Lynch' elements, i.e. the darker tracks.
It does not sound quite as happy as my usual works (I
have realised that I usually try and infuse my music
with some 'happy' elements, as I am basically an optimistic
person).
You’ve released a lot of music under
different aliases…
Too many pseudonyms! I have tried to rationalise
it, to simplify things to just Si-Cut.db and Tennis.
I am proud of all these little projects though, especially
Radial Blend, Media Form, Phoenix Jig etc. They all
sound like Quark Express plug-ins! I think aliases were
a thing that happened very much in the early 90s, when
record sales were higher. Now, it’s not so clever,
and ultimately confusing.
You founded Suburbs Of Hell in the mid-eighties
and released quite a lot of music on it. Do you have
any plans to revive it?
Well, I wouldn't discount it, but after running
Suburbs Of Hell and Sprawl Imprint, it gets to be hard
work and financially draining, not to mention the way
stock seems to linger in my basement, or should I say
'archive'? I am maybe thinking of making a Si-Cut.db
album just to sell at gigs and on my website, but at
present there seems to be a demand for my music from
other labels, so I don't have any time left to be running
a label properly. It’s 'never say never' with
Suburbs certainly.
You also run Sprawl, which is a record label
and a club. Can you tell us about the two side of the
project, and how do you manage to combine your activities
within Sprawl and your music releases?
About 5 years ago Sprawl and my music became
a fulltime activity for me, but still it seems there
is not enough time in the day. Monthly Sprawl almost
run on auto now, in terms of finding new fresh, acts
- which is our thing - and the promotion of it. The
great thing, now we are fairly established (8 years!),
we have a nice stream of artists writing to us from
all over the world, saying they are in London and would
like to play, and who understand our ethos. It’s
a great compliment. Its been a lot of hard work, but
very rewarding, and I think Iris, who I run the event
with and is basically half of Sprawl, and I have done
a lot of growing up and found it quite a learning experience.
A badly attended night is always a nice wake up call
so that we don't get too smug about what we do. I guess
if that continually happened and we were constantly
losing money, then we're not stupid, we would pack it
in. It’s actually quite democratic as well, in
that with the normal event (i.e. not the funded ones),
we just simply split the door takings with the artists
playing. If we're lucky, Iris and I get the bus fare
home!
The label has been quite quiet since 2000.
Do you have any releases in the pipeline?
We have vague plans to release some of the
Sprawl Interplay Sessions from 2002 and 2003,
as these are unique recordings, but to be honest nothing
concrete. As I say, we had a lot of successes with say,
the Chinese Whispers and Freeform projects, but then
there are other projects like Hmm, which I
am very proud of and John Peel played virtually every
track, but it sold next to nothing. A difficult concepts
and maybe an electronic album of hymns was just too
much for people, but it was meant to be nostalgic and
naive, just emphasising the melodies, and take the listener
back to their childhood, but in a modern way; basically
I’m an atheist, but maybe a sentimental one.
Si-Cut.db is your main musical project, and
the name has actually changed quite a few times. What
is the reason behind these changes?
The evolution of the name is on my website,
but maybe it came from a Side (different) Cut of the
Music of Douglas Benford. The whole SideCut>>db
thru to Si-Cut.db is a reflection of the way my sounds
has changed, it reflects a slow evolution and simplification,
as well as my growing tired with brackets, arrows and
full stops. A lot of people have asked me if they were
some kind of computer code reference, and I don't like
to discourage this kind of speculation! I like it to
remain a bit mysterious, and like the whole D. Benford/Deci-Bel
confusion; hopefully I don't get too mixed up with Si
Begg, who is a very nice fellow.
You have released music on numerous labels.
Is it a way for you to keep control on your work?
I think its more a case of finding an outlet/distribution.
I am not a control freak about my material. I think
it basically stands or falls on its own merits. I take
it as a compliment when a label picks up my material,
which being realistic doesn't have huge sales, but I
like to think I have my niche/quality market and a handful
of hardcore fans!
It is the fourth time you are releasing music
on Bip-Hop and Europe On Horseback was the
label’s first release if I am correct, and you’ve
got a second solo album in the pipeline with them. Have
you found your 'spiritual home' with Philippe Petit’s
label?
Its actually the longest I’ve had a relationship
with a label; but this is not because I have been through
a lot of labels, its just that it seemed a lot easier
to put my material out on my labels. Now I tend to think
that it was a more difficult or circumspect route, and
I never really promoted my releases very well, where
Philippe understands exactly what I do and does the
promotion. He is also distributed far better than I
ever managed! I think also that I if I am producing
different kinds of genres, e.g. a few tracks which are
variation of house or micro house, whatever you want
to call it, then they are more suitable for a label
like BackGround. I tend to react or push against each
of my previous pieces of work, so if I just completed
a housey record, then I start get an itch to do something
more abstract or dubby. I like the idea that despite
the style, a person might say 'ahh that's a Si-Cut sound',
but I am always developing, coming up with new ideas,
I just get very impatient.
You're just about to release a new album on
Highpoint Lowlife. Can you tell us more about the album?
Originally I was talking to Thorsten (SidebOard,
co-founder of Highpoint Lowlife) about doing an EP,
because my next major project would be a Bip-Hop album,
so I collected tracks together that thought would not
suit the Bip-Hop one, and then I thought it would be
nice to add a couple of new tracks to fill it out as
it were and hey presto it was an album. As it was we
lost one track from the Find Some Shade album.
I think I am pretty productive nowadays. The artwork
uses some photos of mine - the front cover is of the
1999 eclipse, taken in my garden (the circle is a mirror;
there are some weird light effects coming out the side,
I always though t it was quite mysterious), and the
inner photos are all from my 2002 trip to Vancouver.
How did you come to work with them?
Just through socialising with Thorsten, who
seemed to have good taste, he'd spent some time in San
Francisco, had connections with the SF people like Kit
Clayton and Sutekh I think, who are great people and
who I knew too, so it was kinda joining the dots, socially.
You also have an album coming out on Fällt
soon. When is it due out, and what can we expect?
Mmmm, well this is a problem for me too! I
gave an album to Chris at Fällt, at least two years
ago, and its just been hanging around. Its a really
good one too, entitled Offices At Night, kind
of pivotal, as it collects together a lot material recorded
at the time when I had radically changed my approach
and created my own home studio. I am hoping it will
see the light of day at some point, in 2004 I guess.
What inspires you to write music? Do you have
a set way of working or is it something spontaneous?
Mostly it is my own urges to create music.
I might take a break, say a couple of months, but then
it really creeps up on me and I do get a weird urge
to produce something. Most of the time I get a real
kick out of it. I have to be able to live with my music,
I listen to them over and over, making sure I like them,
in fact usually I get a kick out of hearing stuff I
am working on, playing with it and tweaking it. Occasionally
I will get a deadline and then things get more pressurised,
say when I do a remix, but I have working methods and
sound ideas at the moment that seem to gel and are flexible.
I am not like Kraftwerk, spending 9-5 in the studio
(probably a myth), but I work pretty hard on other things
too, like Sprawl promotions, some voluntary work. So
it’s like all day slaving over a hot laptop. Making
music can actually be a nice break!
You also play live quite regularly. How do
your live sets compare to your albums?
For various reasons, I don't take my laptop
out so much live, but tend to use a stripped down version
of tracks then manipulate it with my sampler, my effects
unit and my little keyboard over the top. It’s
a bit noisier but it is a fun set up. I think sometimes
just standing or sitting behind a laptop can be boring
and my set has more physical inputs. Consequently my
live sets tend to be less minimal, often more melodic.
It is nearly the end of the year. Which albums
have you been listening to this year, and who would
you say has really impressed you, either as a new comer
or as a confirmed artist?
I've been listening to a lot of Mapstation,
Pimmon, Alexander and Aeron, Joel Stern/Anthony Guerra,
Rhythm & Sound, Komet and Kaffe Matthews. They've
all had really nice albums out this year, but overall
there's not been any artists that has blown me away
in the way that hearing Pole and early Vladislav Delay
did when I heard them for the first time. Something
that creates a 'sea change' in the way I listen to music.
There's still too much quality stuff coming out to keep
up! I want to get Tim Hecker's, Paul St Hilaire's and
Lithop’s new releases.
With your various musical projects and Sprawl
going from strength to strength, does it give you enough
time to listen to music and discover new people?
I probably don't get enough time to listen
to things in the way I used to, but I avoid downloading
huge amounts of music, it just becomes too overwhelming.
When there was less access to music for people, you’d
go out and buy an album, and maybe it would grow on
you, but we have a kinda instant gratification/disposable
culture now; maybe music has to evolve along with that.
I do seem to hear new artists all the time though, so
that freedom/quickness of information we have through
the Internet say, is good for that...
What’s next for you?
To be honest, I think I need a holiday; I am
looking forward to the festive season when things will
be quieter. Meanwhile, Sprawl is continuing at the Lifthouse
next year, and there is talk of a SonicRecycler
2 - this is the collaboration between my local
recycle group, Brentford Recylcling Action Group, Sprawl,
and my local art centre. I've just finished my new Bip-Hop
album, and have gigs lined up after Interplay (a UK
tour, then I'm playing at Sintesi in Italy). Next year
I am playing a few gigs in France, and there are some
discussions about a few dates in Russia, also Finland
and Canada I hope... until people get tired of me!
Email interview November 2003.
Thank you to Douglas and Thorsten.
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